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• Leader of the Arts

Vincent Murphy

August 2005

Associate Professor, Theater Studies and Artistic Producing Director, Theater Emory

Vincent (Vinnie) Murphy has collaborated on more than 200 theater productions across the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America, and has won multiple awards for directing, acting, choreography, playwriting and design. He is founder of the groundbreaking Theater Works Company in Boston, and has directed at several U.S. regional theaters including the American Repertory Theatre, the Alliance Theatre, the Horizon Theatre, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Actors Theatre Louisville.

Mr. Murphy has worked in professional theater as an actor since 1963 and created more than fifty roles. Highlights include acting on a four-month tour of European festivals, playing Orestes in a five-person version of The Oresteia in Boston and Montreal and creating dance-theater pieces as a choreographer/actor/dancer.

The Boston, Massachusetts native is a 1972 graduate of Boston University, and enhanced his education with 23 years of professional training workshops that include acting, directing, voice, improv, and political theater; teacher training, and modern and contact dance training.

Mr. Murphy has been a theater professor at Emory University since 1989. Under his tutelage as Artistic Producing Director, Theater Emory continues to be a distinctive, creative group that presents both professional and student productions in a unique collaborative environment. With close ties to Atlanta’s theater community, they frequently team up with local professionals and offer new talent and workshop space in support of a diverse range of projects in town. As a champion of seeing new works developed, Murphy created the playwriting center at Theater Emory, which has been a great source of original productions for many years.

Prior to coming to Emory, he lent his vast knowledge of theater to the world as guest lecturer, instructor, professor and department head to various institutes of higher learning throughout New England, Canada and Europe.

He has been a recipient of numerous awards and citations over the past 20 years. They include over 35 “Best Play of the Year” awards, “Outstanding Performance of the Year” awards, “Best Designer of the Year”, the Boston Critics Circle 1st Annual “Best Director of the Year Citation”, the “Crystal Apple” award for teaching in the Humanities, “2003 Best Director of the Year” from The Atlanta Journal Constitution and Creative Loafing and most importantly your Atlanta Area Lexus Dealers’ and Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s “Lexus Leader of the Arts” for August 2005.